9.2 Weather Hazards

 Weather Hazards

Well, this has been a great journey, I have learned a lot. I appreciate all the feedback that I have received through the course. Our last blog post is about hazardous weather conditions that present the greatest risk to aviation operations. So, today we are going to discuss the Cumulonimbus cloud, commonly known as thunderstorm clouds.

These clouds have a heavy, dense structure with a dark gray/gloomy, tall appearance. Ranging from 2000 ft (where the angry base resides) to 40,000 ft (where their strong anvil-shaped tops are). They are high on the risk factor because their guest list is filled with popularity, its associated are lighting, thunder, precipitation, and even tornadoes.

Their formation can be broken down into parts, the lowest mainly composed of water drops and is typically warmest. As the middle area contains water drops and ice crystals, they also include the most movement of air through up-drafts and down-drafts. The top portion contains only ice crystals due to the temperature in this section. These clouds can bring surface gusts differing in strength and direction directly affecting the take-off and landings of aircraft. Ahrens mentions that these violent up/down-drafts can exceed 70 knots, just over 80 MPH. (2007) If you happen to be flying in the higher levels of the cloud you could also experience flight icing, other areas have a higher risk of being struck by lightning also. 70 percent of lightning-strike events occur during precipitation however, the probability of a lightning strike decreases significantly above 20,000 ft. (Sweers, 2012) Though at that point you’ll probably get pummeled by another condition like ice.

 

 References

Ahrens, C. Donald. (2007). Meteorology today: an introduction to weather, climate, and the environment. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Brooks/Cole

Sweers, G. (2012). Lightning Strikes: Protection, Inspection, and Repair. https://www.boeing.com/commercial/aeromagazine/articles/2012_q4/4/


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